In his heart of hearts, Chandler Parsons really thought he was going back to play for the Houston Rockets next season and beyond.

After the Dallas Mavericks signed restricted free agent Parsons to a three-year, $46 million offer sheet, the 6-foot-9, 227-pound small forward was sure the Rockets were going to match it . But Rockets general manager Daryl Morey said Parsons’ contract under the deal was “untradeable,” so he didn’t match it, making Parsons a member of the Mavs.

“I definitely was a little surprised that they didn’t match,” Parsons said. “I thought that was the plan going forward that they were going to [match].

“But I think [agent] Dan Fegan and my agency ... did a great job with this contract and really put pressure on them. They decided what they thought was best for their future and they told me to go get my best individual contract, and we both did what we thought was best for ourselves.”

Houston actually created a problem for itself by allowing Parsons to hit the restricted free agent market. The Rockets owned a player option on Parsons’ contract, and if they had picked it up they would only have had to pay him $960,000 next season, and he would have become an unrestricted free agent next summer.

That gamble didn’t pay of for the Rockets, but it did for Parsons. The three-year veteran will make $14.7 million next season in Dallas.